After Rancid had their big mainstream breakthrough with 1995's ...And Out Come the Wolves, they wanted to go even bigger. Enter Life Won't Wait, the lengthiest and most ambitious album that Rancid ever made. They brought some of Operation Ivy's ska-punk back on ...And Out Come the Wolves, but this time they embraced ska (and reggae) in more prominent and more traditional ways. They didn't want to just be a punk band with upstrokes; they wanted to be the real deal. They recorded part of the album in Jamaica and got help from Jamaican reggae musician Buju Banton, as well as from members of veteran ska bands The Specials (Roddy Radiation, Lynval Golding, Neville Staple) and The Slackers (Vic Ruggiero, Dave Hillyard). They went beyond the standard punk setup to include organ, steel drums, sax, trombone, trumpet, blues harmonica, piano, and more. They wrote slower, cleaner, and longer songs, but they also wrote plenty of fast punk songs, and the list of guest punk musicians on the album is just as star-studded: Marky Ramone, Agnostic Front's Roger Miret, Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones' Dicky Barrett, D Generation's Howie Pyro. It's like the album was one big shoutout to all the music they love, and sometimes the album was literally that. "Wrongful Suspicion" is an ode to New York punk and its lyrics shout out H2O, The Slackers, Stubborn All Stars, Sick Of It All, Agnostic Front, Crown of Thornz, D Generation, DJ Ansen, Dave Hillyard and the Rocksteady Seven, Simon and the Bar Sinisters, Nine Lives, Chrisipline and his new band Under The Gun, Madball, and Marky Ramone and the Intruders. On ...And Out Come the Wolves, Rancid started getting pummeled with Clash comparisons, and with Life Won't Wait, it's like they tried to write their Sandinista! (and on "Lady Liberty," they reference actual Sandinistas, which can't be a coincidence).

For all the talk of Life Won't Wait being Rancid's big, cross-genre, reggae-meets-punk album, though, it's not that different from ...And Out Come the Wolves. If I had to criticize it, I'd say Rancid probably could have been even more ambitious and departed even more from their roots. The title track, which features Buju Banton and Vic Ruggiero and is one of the most overtly reggae songs on the album, is also one of the strongest and catchiest. Going further down this rabbithole could've resulted in an even more adventurous album. At the same time, the familiarity of the bulk of Life Won't Wait helps the riskier songs go down easy. Absurdly catchy punk and ska-punk bangers like "Bloodclot," "Warsaw," "Leicester Square," and "1998" could've fit just fine on ...And Out Come the Wolves and they're as strong as a lot of the songs on that near-perfect album. Mixing them in with the reggae of "Crane Fist" or the blues harmonica of "Cocktails" made for an album that struck a fine balance between the old and the new. It's by far Rancid's most unique album, and one of the most unique albums to come from a mainstream '90s punk band in general.

I might catch some flak for ranking "the sellout album" higher than the classic Life Won't Wait, but the hate for Indestructible was always unfair and I think it's been long enough that Indestructible can be fully recognized as the great album that it is. Fans were upset because Rancid signed a distribution deal with a major label, they blamed the more polished sound on Warner Bros, and nobody liked that the video for "Fall Back Down" starred members of Good Charlotte. I still don't have a very good defense for Good Charlotte (who tried to look like Rancid but were never as punk as them), but they were only in the video. The songs are all still the Rancid you know and love, and it's not like they brought in big pop producers to co-write the songs or anything. It was still produced by Bad Religion's Brett Gurewitz, who produced most of their albums, and the production isn't even that shiny. They obviously had a bigger budget than they did for the early records, so it's a cleaner sounding record, but it doesn't sound like... Good Charlotte or something. And besides, nobody over the age of 14 should be calling bands sellouts anyway. Haven't Jawbreaker taught you anything???

If the cleaner production did anything for Rancid's sound, it just brought out how there had always been strong pop songs stirring beneath Tim Armstrong's gravelly voice. The ...And Out Come the Wolves songs are the most classic, but Rancid have never written songs catchier than Indestructible singles "Fall Back Down" and "Red Hot Moon" before or since. And if you don't think it's punk to talk about strong pop songwriting, you must not listen to the Ramones or the Buzzcocks. Like a lot of musicians who emerged out of the punk underground, Tim Armstrong is a genuinely talented pop songwriter (he wrote and produced a hit for P!nk the same year Indestructible came out), and sometimes those punk musicians just need some better production to coax the great pop songs out of them. And, over 15 years later, "Fall Back Down" and "Red Hot Moon" hold up as two of the stronger pop-minded punk songs to come out of the whole mainstream punk boom. They retained the attitude and the style of classic Rancid, but they went down even easier than the classics and they held their own against the actual pop of the time. And plus, when you consider that those are the two poppiest songs that Rancid ever wrote, you're still looking at a band who are way more abrasive than the large majority of mainstream pop punk bands. Indestructible can't just be boiled down to those two songs though. Part of the reason that the album ranks so high is that, throughout its 19 tracks, it just keeps offering up ripper after ripper. There's a slow song or two in the mix, but mostly Rancid just sound like a well-oiled punk and ska-punk machine on Indestructible. It's definitely an album that favors economical, accessible songs over anything that borders on "risky," but even with that being the case, it's got a handful of fast, aggresive punk songs and even a straightup hardcore song ("Out of Control"), and there aren't many mainstream sellout punk bands who write rippers like that.

1998’s Life Won't Wait was Rancid's big, genre-defying, statement-making, and least punk-sounding album, but after that one came out it appeared they had another statement to make: that they could still be a punk band. A no-bullshit, hard-as-hell punk band. Their second self-titled album (following their 1993 debut) is the closest Rancid ever came to making a hardcore record, and it's real-deal hardcore. It wasn't a put-on at all; it was just proof that Rancid could've been a hardcore band this whole time if they wanted to. Following the more ambitious ...And Out Come the Wolves and Life Won't Wait, Rancid reunited with Bad Religion's Brett Gurewitz (who also produced the more traditionally punk 1994 album Let's Go), and Rancid 2000 was very much a return to the band's more traditional punk roots. But even Rancid's earliest work wasn't as whiplash-inducing or as gut-busting as this. (Rancid have often had intimidating-looking artwork, but the black, skull-and-cross-bones art of Rancid 2000 was yet another indicator that this was a meaner Rancid than we'd ever seen before.) Matt Freeman took lead vocal turns for the first time since Let's Go, and his rasp is perfect for a more aggressive punk record, though it's often Lars Frederiksen's songs that are the most overtly hardcore. His bark on songs like "I Am Forever" and "Loki" are as punishing as anything that came out on SST or Dischord or Revelation in the '80s. And the album's razor-sharp, full-throttle power chords rival the great bands of that era too. Most of the songs are under two minutes and some are even under one minute. There's no ska, reggae, organs, production tricks, or anything fancy going on: just balls-to-the-walls punk rock with all the anger, attitude, and precision in the world.

Lars is the album's secret weapon, with his born-too-late bark that would've shaken up the world of hardcore two decades earlier, but as is usually the case with Rancid, it's those sneaky Tim Armstrong hooks that keep the album a step above the countless '80s hardcore worshippers that still exist today. Rancid making an '80s hardcore record in 2000 is like Kendrick making a '90s rap record with 2017's DAMN.; they took a stripped-down sound from the past that paved the way for their more complex music, and they did it in a way that did justice to their heroes' music and was still accessible to their younger fans. The hooks on songs like "Rwanda" and "Antennas" are among the catchiest in Rancid's discography; they're just worked into short, fast, no-frills songs instead of poppy, mid-tempo, radio-friendly punk songs. (Not to mention, "Antennas" remains an incisive criticism of Hollywood stopping at nothing -- not even sexism or racism -- to make a buck.) While Life Won't Wait sounded like an attempt at a classic, Rancid 2000 just sounded like Rancid having fun and playing some music they love, but they ended up writing a handful of classic songs in the process. When you compare it to the trademark sound and the out-of-this-world punk songwriting of the next two albums on this list, you sort of can't call Rancid 2000 their best album. But it is the coolest and most unlikely album they ever made, and I come back to it just about as often as I return to their most definitive LPs.

Rancid's 1993 album was a solid yet humble debut, and the band's only album recorded as a trio. But once they solidified the classic lineup of original trio Tim Armstrong, Matt Freeman, Brett Reed, and then-new guitarist/vocalist Lars Frederiksen, and teamed up with producer Brett Gurewitz of Bad Religion (who would go on to produce most of their albums), Rancid made their proper introduction on 1994's Let's Go, and it remains home to some of the very best songs of their career. The seeds for Let's Go were being sewn on the debut, but it's still hard to believe they made such a giant leap in just one year. It almost sounds like a different band. (And technically, it sort of was.) Let's Go wasn't yet embracing the ska that ...And Out Come the Wolves would embrace, but it saw them branching out pretty far from their straightforward debut, with cleaner guitars, slower tempos, more dynamics, and more complex rhythms. And most importantly, they were all of a sudden writing really, really great songs. The debut album showed that Tim Armstrong knew his way around a hook and that Matt Freeman was a beast on the bass, but here Tim (and Matt) are writing timeless choruses and Matt's basslines are nearly as memorable as some of the words. And Let's Go is just an onslaught of great songs. It's not fair to call it top heavy, but Rancid were smart enough to put the best songs up front, and what a hell of a way to start a record. The first five songs is one of the greatest chunks of music to come out of the entire '90s punk era. Each song throws you right into the action; there's maybe a snare hit or about five seconds of power chords and lead bass, and then you're just hurled straight into the hook. Let's Go isn't as simplistic as either of the self-titled albums, but it doesn't waste time with things like intros or outros or interludes or anything like that. It's basically the ideal punk album: nothing but loud, in-your-face songs that you'll be yelling along to by the second listen, and a strong identity that separates it from the masses of punk bands trying to do exactly the same thing.

Let's Go wasn't a mainstream breakthrough like its followup, but it did start to gain Rancid fans outside of the punk scene, it just cracked the top 100 on the Billboard charts, and it's since been certified Gold, making it the only Rancid album besides ...And Out Come the Wolves (which went platinum) to get a certification. Let's Go was the beginning of Rancid making their mark in the mainstream world, but you would never call it "pop punk." It's not as hard as Rancid 2000, but Let's Go matches its many, many hooks with just as much attitude and aggression. It's as pissed-off as '80s hardcore and as hook-oriented as '70s punk. It was the perfect way to bring punk into the '90s, not by "reviving" something that had been done already but by absorbing everything that had been done already and spitting it back out with your own twist. Cynics of mainstream '90s punk jumped at the chance to point out other bands had done this kind of music already, but now with 25 years of hindsight, it feels safe to say there really weren't any other bands who sounded like Let's Go. Rancid's debut album was tight, but it didn't establish an identity. On Let's Go, the Rancid that has existed for the past quarter-century was born.

There are days when I'm convinced that the nearly-perfect Let's Go is the best Rancid album. It's certainly their best straight-up punk, it kicks your ass harder than the band's more popular albums, and none of its songs are outplayed. But then I hit play on ...And Out Come the Wolves, and I remember that this even more perfect album will always top the list. It's probably the most popular choice for best Rancid album, and with good reason. Everything you want from Rancid is on this album, it never drags, there are never any low points. It's got their most-loved hits, and about half of the other songs feel like hits. It's the perfect balance between the ambition of Life Won't Wait, the pop appeal of Indestructible, and the punk aggression of Let's Go. As memorable as the Let's Go songs are, these songs are tenfold. These are songs that are forever loved within the punk community, and your casual alternative rock fan can sing along to them too. On ...And Out Come the Wolves, Rancid infiltrated the mainstream without sacrificing any of their integrity or their values, and the songs sound as fresh today as they did in 1995. Let's Go is nearly impossible to part with, but if I had to pick only one Rancid album to have for the rest of my life, I'll always pick ...And Out Come the Wolves.

I don't think that Rancid set out to write a hit-making, Platinum-certified album when they wrote ...And Out Come the Wolves, but the band and Epitaph Records at least knew a hit was possible at this point. Let's Go fared modestly well in the mainstream, but that same year Rancid's Epitaph labelmates The Offspring became stars with Smash and their old pals Green Day did the same with Dookie. After recording Let's Go with Bad Religion's Brett Gurewitz producing, they enlisted in the help of Jerry Finn, who had mixed Dookie, to produce ...And Out Come the Wolves. Just a few years later, Jerry Finn would go on to turn bands like blink-182, AFI, and Alkaline Trio from punk bands to pop stars, but on ...And Out Come the Wolves, Finn hadn't yet become punk's go-to pop producer and the album still has the raw, gritty edge of Rancid's previous releases. Still, ...And Out Come the Wolves is their mainstream breakthrough release, it scored them hits with "Ruby Soho," "Time Bomb," and "Roots Radicals," and it helped land them a performance on Saturday Night Live that same year.

But while Green Day's songs were clearly pop and The Offspring's biggest hits veered towards the sounds of the already-popular grunge movement, Rancid were still firmly in punk territory on ...And Out Come the Wolves. They were also in ska territory, as this was the album where Rancid finally brought back the ska-punk sounds of Tim Armstrong and Matt Freeman's band Operation Ivy, but while ska got a mainstream reputation for being a silly, lighthearted genre, Rancid's ska songs were tough. Green Day and The Offspring's biggest songs were tapping into feelings and anxieties that teenage middle class America (and, as was often the case, teenage middle class American boys) could easily relate to, but Rancid were tough, intimidating, Mohawk-having punks painting a picture of a gritty American underbelly that radio rock listeners were most likely not familiar with. Tim Armstrong and the rest of the guys emerged as great punk singers and songwriters on Let's Go, but here they became great storytellers, and they told stories of junkies and crooks and gangs and living in the sewers and on the streets and all kinds of stuff that middle class America had probably never experienced firsthand. They were singing about that stuff on Let's Go too, but on ...And Out Come the Wolves their lyricism evolved from punk sloganeering to gripping storytelling. It makes sense that Tim Armstrong ended getting so involved with hip hop; he developed a clear-eyed, unfiltered style of lyricism that was often closer to rap than to most punk.

...And Out Come the Wolves brought out the best in Rancid in every way: the lyrics, the hooks, the basslines (the most iconic Rancid bassline is of course the solo on Wolves opener "Maxwell Murder"), the balance of punk and ska. Some of the best ska-punk songs ever written are on ...And Out Come the Wolves; it's songs like "Time Bomb" and "Old Friend" that defined the style Rancid would "go pop" with on Indestructible, and the style Tim would help revive with his now-popular protégés The Interrupters. They didn't go full reggae on this album like they did on Life Won't Wait, but they brought in some reggae organ and they certainly sang about reggae on this one. (Unlike Life Won't Wait and unlike most ska, this album had no horns.) And if Rancid opened Let's Go with a perfect five-song run, I'd say they opened this one with a perfect nine-song run. From "Maxwell Murder" through "Ruby Soho," each new song starts and instantly gives you that feeling of "oh yeah, this one!" It's the kind of album where you start to memorize the sequence, you can always feel what's coming next, and you never want to hear it any other way. The album's three singles all fall during that first nine, but all nine of them feel like they belong on a Rancid greatest hits album. And while Rancid albums tend to be long with the fan favorites up front, the 19 songs of ...And Out Come the Wolves never drag and tons of fan favorites pop up during the second half, like "Journey to the End of the East Bay" and "Old Friend" and "As Wicked" and album closer "The Way I Feel." No other Rancid album stays this strong all the way through. Even the songs that don't stand out as much as the big fan faves remain memorable and essential. Part of that is because Rancid knew to give their songs just the right amount of musical diversity on this album. As great as Let's Go is, the songs can sometimes start to blur but that never happens on ...And Out Come the Wolves, where each individual song is its own beast. Rancid would go further down the musical diversity rabbithole on the ambitious Life Won't Wait, but on this album they've got the perfect mix of branching out from your roots and saying true to them. Life Won't Wait sounds like it was written to top ...And Out Come the Wolves and become considered the band's definitive record, but sometimes you just can't control that kind of thing. If Life Won't Wait is their Sandinista! then ...And Out Come the Wolves is their London Calling. It's forever the band's most iconic work, and it deserves to be.